The New York Jets (0-3 preseason) lost to the Carolina Panthers (2-1 preseason) today by a score of 17-12.

Quick Hits:

Austin Howard looked solid in his first starter after the benching of Wayne Hunter. Howard had good plays in both pass protection and run blocking.

Santonio Holmes saw 15 snaps and three targets. Holmes caught an eight yard slant pass, but did drop one ball.

On offense, Dustin Keller and Josh Baker left the game with injuries – with the Baker hit looking particularly bad. David Harris went out with an injury too, but said after the game he would be fine.

Michelle Tafoya shared during the game that LaDainian Tomlinson told her recently that Santonio Holmes and Mark Sanchez essentially didn’t talk to each other for the last thirteen weeks of the season in 2011.

There’s going to be a lot of doom and gloom in New York for the next two weeks as the Jets failed to score a touchdown in the first three preseason games and are the first team to do so since the Falcons in 1977. It’s not a good sign that the offense hasn’t been able to put anything together so far this preseason, but it’s not the end of the world either. Just a few years ago, Brett Ratliff was scorching it upin the preseason for the Jets … how’d that work out for him? The Jets starters had two passes of more than 20 yards and seemed to be trying to get the ball down the field much more this game than in past games. Sanchez’s receivers didn’t do him any favors in the first half with a number of dropped passes.Speaking of the defense, I really liked what I saw from them. So far the starting defense has only given up one touchdown in three games. Not bad … although at this rate the Jets still might lose 0 – 2.3̅.

The interior pressure on the quarterback was impressive. Maybin had some solid pressures but Cam’s athleticism helped him evade some big hits. Against most other quarterbacks in the league, Maybin gets there on those two plays. Landry had another deep interception and there were some impressive pass breakups – especially that one from Cro on the sideline. Quinton Coples had another solid game pressuring the quarterback, knocking loose a fumble and with a few solid tackles on runners. Even with all of that, Coples did earn Ryan’s consternation by questioning why he was left in when the rest of starters came out. Ryan called it the “woe is me” act after the game.With the news that Hunter was going to play as an extra blocker, one of the things I noted recently was that the Jets top three Tight Ends are all essentially “F” type tight ends. Cumberland has the best potential to be a “Y” tight end, but he’s still not there. So if the Jets find out that Keller and Baker are going to be out for a period of time … with what type player do they actually try and fill the roster? If there’s any consolation at the spot from the game, it’s that Cumberland told the press he expects to be back in pads this week after his concussion.

Many are seeing through the “competition” between Josh Brown and Nick Folk. Brown missed another kick, albeit from 50 yards tonight. Folk isn’t going to the Hall of Fame, but he’s obviously better than Brown.